November 9, 2011

Elie Wiesel is expected to speak about the Talmud in his next lectures

In an article today in The Daily Free Press, The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston University, I read this: “In his next lectures, Wiesel is expected to speak about the Talmud and good and evil.” The caption on an old photo accompanying the article was this: “Nobel Laureate and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities Elie Wiesel gives a talk entitled, “The Rebbe of Ger: A Tragedy in Hasidism,” at Metcalf Hall on Nov. 1, 2010.”

I couldn’t believe it when I read that Elie Wiesel had given a lecture on Hasidism last year and he is going to lecture on the Talmud this year. I was reminded of a line spoken by Paulie Walnuts on The Sopranos, an HBO series that I used watch: “Hasidim, but I don’t believe ’em” ( The joke centers on the word Hasidim which sounds something like Hah-seed-em. Hasidim is explained here.)

According to Wikipedia, “Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston’s largest employers. The university identifies itself as nonsectarian, although it maintains an affiliation with The United Methodist Church.”

This sentence in the student newspaper article cited above is not entirely clear to me: “In his next lectures, Wiesel is expected to speak about the Talmud and good and evil.” Does this mean that Wiesel is going to talk about the good and the evil that is in the Talmud? Or that he is going to talk about two separate topics: 1. the Talmud and 2. good and evil?

I always thought that the Talmud was a closely guarded secret. Surely, Elie Wiesel is not going to spill the beans on the Talmud.

You can read more about Elie Wiesel on this blog; the title of the blog is “Elie Wiesel Cons the World.” Eric Hunt has a blog that includes many articles on Elie Wiesel which you can read here. Check out this blog post on Winston Smith’s excellent blog, which is unique and fun for all.